THE JORDANIAN STOCK EXCHANGE: CAN IT DELIVER WHAT IS EXPECTED?

Year 2016, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 117 - 125, 30.06.2016

Ghassan Omet

Abstract

Financial development in Jordan should be underestimated for two main reasons. First, the total assets of licensed banks constitute about 180 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Second, the country boasts one of the oldest stock markets in the region. The Amman Securities Exchange (ASE) was established in 1978 and its current capitalization is equivalent to about 75 percent of GDP. Given Jordan’s socio-economic challenges, and the fact that successive governments have been suffering from large and consistent budget deficits, it does not make economic sense that the ASE has no active secondary bonds market. The issued government securities are sold to all licensed banks. This observation is unfortunate. Avoiding the concentration of financial intermediation in banks makes sense. In addition, whilst a well-developed bond market allows banks to transfer their risk (securitization), such a market makes the conduct of monetary policy more effective and contributes to budgetary discipline by exposing the government to financial discipline. This paper argues for the need for developing a government securities market in Jordan. In addition, the paper examines the already listed shares in terms of their liquidity cost. Based on the empirical results, it is reported that listed shares suffer from high liquidity cost. This finding and its implications are useful in recommending what must be done to develop an active bonds market.

Keywords

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